Once every fall semester, all 20 universities offering accredited Professional Golf Management programs have the opportunity to send five of their best players down to the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, Fla. for the largest national competition in the PGM ranks.

The 10th annual PGA Jones Cup, named after former Mississippi State University director Dr. S. Roland Jones, will forever belong to N.C. State.

Carding a two-day total of 609, the Wolfpack completely bypassed its first ever top-10 finish in program history and arrived back to Raleigh with a six-stroke victory. Senior Bryce Aronson shared top medalist honors after firing rounds of 76 and 71, which aided in the Pack’s Wednesday comeback.

“It’s pretty cool, we are really excited to bring home the trophy and put it up in the PGM office,” Aronson said. “All of us are pretty happy about cool.”

One of those out-of-state products, sophomore and Lisle, Ill. native Ben Nelson, led the tournament through one round after battling windy conditions. En route to an opening round 73, Nelson said he and the Pack faced particularly challenging elements.

“That was probably one of the toughest 73s I have ever shot,” Nelson said. “The greens were nice, but they were really hard and you couldn’t stick anything on them. Basically you could never put marks in the greens because they were so costs.”

For Wade, the Jones Cup tournament symbolizes much more than a national competition – it represents the PGA of America, and its prominent mission.

“I think it shows that the PGA is and always will place an emphasis on the importance of playing golf,” Wade said. “There may have been a time in the past where we got away from that and the professional was supposed to be the guy taking inventory and selling merchandise and running tournaments.

“The Jones Cup very much illustrates that it’s important for golf professionals to be able to play